Besson Bugle

Need your help folks. Anyone have info they could provide me about this horn please?

Besson Bugle, copper with 3 brass fittings, a very small mouthpiece chained to the horn. Stamped on the bell as follows:
Besson & Co.
London W.C.2
H.75983
(above the words is a symbol which looks like a crown sitting over the word KING...hard to tell if that is the word)

It was purchased in the early 1980s in a Thieves Market near Bombay, India (today called Mumbai).

Re: Besson Bugle

Some bad news:
Counterfeit 'Bessons' instruments
A flood of very poor quality Indian-made instruments bearing the name Bessons entered the market in the late 1990s. They are completely unrelated to the Besson instruments manufactured by the company with that name. Many sales are made on online auctions. With cursory examination, any serious brass player would be able to recognise that these instruments are wholly inferior to real Besson instruments, and also of much poorer quality than even the cheapest of student instruments produced by large reputable manufacturers.

The fake instruments, particularly pocket trumpets, cornets, euphoniums, bugles and Bb trumpets, are likely to feature a 'serial number' of H.75983 (or 84059) embossed on the top of the bell and valve keys are often hexagonal in plan view. Similar counterfeit instruments, potentially made at the same factories, have been falsely branded with other reputable manufacturers' names, such as Getzen and Boosey. These instruments are best described as novelty items since they are shoddily built from very thin metal and they are often unplayable (due to faults in the manufacturing) and untunable (the tuning slides are simply ornamentation - they do not work).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besson_(company)

Re: Besson Bugle

Also found with applique badges of famous British regiments. There is 'good and bad news' about these. one was recently given to my band and with a real mpc, rather than the spoof mpc supplied, it does actually play enough that all main bugle calls can be sounded on it albeit in the wrong key! We passed ours onto a youngster who wanted to learn the bugle as a precurser to becoming a drummer in the Royal Marines Band Service. He was able to learn all of the brass basics from one of our cornet players before getting a nice bugle from Potters.

Re: Besson Bugle

Peter...no problem, was not expecting we had uncovered a gem or anything like that. Just curious and I really appreciate your response. It spent years as a Christmas ornament in the family, pulled out of an old box of junk and hung over the fireplace then faithfully re-packed to await another holiday. Looks like that's the only life it should ever see. Thanks...